Dynamic Change and Attribution Regarding Fractional Vegetation Coverage in Mengdong River Basin
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsI reviewed the manuscript "Dynamic Change and Attribution in Respect of Fractional Vegetation Coverage in Mengdong River Basin" by Cao and Wen. The authors calculated the FVC across the Mengdong River based on Landsat Archive images and analyzed the spatiotemporal trends of FVC. They also examined the impact of climatic and anthropogenic practices on the FVC changes. The topic is interesting in the context of climate change and ecological engineering. However, several issues should be addressed to enhance the quality and clarity of the manuscript.
1- The citation style should be modified according to the journal style.
2- The objectives of the manuscript are clear. However, the contribution of the study to the field needs to be highlighted. Since several previous studies have investigated the vegetation trend across the study area, please state their limitations or the new aspects that have been considered in the current study. This will clarify the place of the current study among previously published papers.
3- Section 2.2; Please state the preprcessing steps applied to Landsat-5 TM and Landsat-8 OLI. Which type of data has been downloaded from GEE? and which preprocessing steps were applied?
4—Section 4.1: What is the accuracy of NDVI-based FVC (Line 206) calculations? Have you tested their practicability in the study area?
5- Line 358; What is 和?
6- Table 4; Please change "slimate" to "climate".
7—Please include the spatiotemporal maps of FVC trends across the study area. A new Figure is required to present the statistical significance of trends based on the Mann-Kendall approach and the pixel-based Sen slope over the study area for both time periods.
8- Figure 8; The annual average values of precipitation are not shown. The temperature data is duplicated.
9- What is the exact source of the precipitation data? What is its accuracy in the study area? It is important to know the accuracy of the precipitation data in order to validate the partial correlation analysis. The same is true regarding the temperature data.
10- Why was only a linear-type trend considered for investigations? Vegetation covers may have non-linear behavior, and non-linear trends may provide further information about the changes that occurred. You can check this paper for clarification: https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14153683
Author Response
Thank you very much for these comments and please find the detailed responses to your suggestions below.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe problem of studying the vegetation dynamics is one of the most important tasks in assessing the environment state. The topic of the manuscript, in this regard, is relevant. The study uses a variety of metrics to identify trends in multi-year changes in FVC. Quantitative criteria such as the Mann-Kendall test and the Hurst index are used to analyze FVC changes.
The manuscript requires a number of changes and clarifications.
1) All formulas in the manuscript should be assigned numbers.
2) Lines 152-154. Figure 1. Right side. You need to specify the unit of measurement in the color scale.
3) Line 206. For the FVC formula, it is necessary to provide a link to the source. The formula must have limitations on use. It is recommended to specify these limitations.
4) Line 353. FVC can be influenced not only by temperature and precipitation, but also by terrain features, such as terrain slope. How were terrain characteristics taken into account in the study?
5) Has the calculated FVC been compared with the actual values assessed at the test sites?
6) Lines 440-441. Table 8. It is necessary to check the names of gradations in the “Classification” column. For example, instead of “High vegetation cover” indicate “Dense vegetation cover”.
7) Lines 459-460. Figure 6. In the designations of measurement units on the scale bar, the text needs to be in English.
8) Line 535 and line 545. Such significant fluctuations in the temperature and precipitation correlation coefficient with FVC indicate that the relationship between them is not stable in space. This indicates that in addition to temperature and precipitation, FVC is influenced by other factors, such as terrain features. These factors (for example, terrain slope) also need to be analyzed.
Comments on the Quality of English LanguageIt is recommended to check the manuscript for frequent repetitions of the same words and phrases in neighboring sentences. For example, "spatial and temporal" in lines 73-83.
Author Response
Thank you very much for these comments and please find the detailed responses to your suggestions below.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsDear, Authors,
The presented study estimated the FVC in the Mengdong River Basin of Hunan Province, analyzed its spatio-temporal variation characteristics from 1987 to 2022, and explored the relationship between its spatio-temporal evolution and climate factors and ecological engineering. The study estimates the effect of numerous environmental projects to improve the condition of karst ecosystems. Using various statistical methods, it compares the degree of impact of climate change and ecological engineering on the deterioration of the ecological status of the ecosystems. Generally, the MS is interesting and well-written. I have only a few suggestions for the authors.
Abstract:
Too large abstract without introducing crucial information about the methods applied and the aim of the study. Consider shortening!
Lines 8-9 - The karst forms are prone to desertification but are they the factor for deterioration in present days or some else yet they were formed a long time ago in the geological history?
Line 14 - List the studied climate factors!
Line 14 – Specify that the effects of numerous environmental projects to improve the condition of karst ecosystems were estimated.
Line 15 - Before the results you have to introduce the basic methods applied. For instance, below in the text you have mentioned the Hurst index without explaining that such an index was calculated before that!
Introduction:
You have to briefly introduce the methods applied in the study! What are their pros and cons?
Line 42 - Karst environments are prone worldwide not only in the subtropical zone!
Lines 74-85 - You should be more specific about the methods these authors applied and after that explain how your methods are better and enlarge the scientific knowledge.
Lines 91-96 - Add references!
Lines 97 – 98 - Add references!
Lines 110 – 113 - Add references!
Lines 124-125 - Avoid generalization!
Line 126 - accounting for 25.94% of the total land area of the total land area in the country!
Lines 129-133 – References!
Line 138 - Which are these influencing factors?
Line 154 – Figure 1 - Please, add a scale bar to the left figure!
Line 158 – Please, specify the spatial resolution of all images!
Line 160 - Due to the low quality...or due to the presence of cloud cover…
Line 166 - Add reference!
Lines 179 -189 - Refer to Fig. 2, right!
Line 191 – Figure 2 - Add a scale bar to the left figure!
How does rocky desertification (without a degree of desertification) differ from the other, graded types? Capitalize the first letter!
Research methods:
There are many paragraphs without references in this part of the text. In addition, some parts of the text have approximately a higher amount of wording duplication according to the iThenticate report. Please, check the entire text of the MS carefully and add the missing references where needed!
All analyses described in this section should be listed in the abstract and mentioned in the introduction as a summary of what to expect in the methodology section!
Lines 199 – 202 - Add references!
Lines 105, 106, etc. – Please, number the formulas throughout the text!
Lines 209 – 214 - Add reference!
Lines 215 – 218 - Add reference!
Lines 253 – 256 - Add reference!
Lines 266 -272 - Add reference!
Line 286 – Format the references according to the requirements!
Lines 319 -126 - Add reference!
Lines 358 -359 - There are some unnecessary symbols remained in here!
Line 363 – Table 4 - Add Climate change (CC) and Human activities (HA) in the description of the Driving factor! There is a typing mistake in Climate change!
Result analysis and discussion
Refer to the tables and figures in the text! I barely found any references!
Lines 400 – 401 - I suggest to use land cover categories rather than landform categories. Landforms sound more like geomorphological formations.
Table 6 - Write all categories with capitalized first letter. That comment is valid for all tables and figures!
Line 428 - UF and UB - Undisclosed abbreviations. Please disclose them where first mentioned!
Figure 6 - There are Chinese symbols in the figure!
Figure 8 - Figure 8 - The figure of Mean air temperature is doubled! The figure of Annual precipitation is missing!
Line 539 - the north and northeast of the study area - Add in brackets the characteristics of this area! Maybe a higher altitude area?
Author Response
Thank you very much for these positive comments and please find the detailed responses to your suggestions below.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsI appreciate the authors' effort in addressing the comments. The manuscript has been improved accordingly, and I have no further comments.
Author Response
Thank you very much for your comments again.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe authors took into account the comments. The manuscript may be recommended for publication, but the following clarifications need be made:
1) It is recommended to use only one of the FVC designations in the manuscript: “Fractional vegetation coverage” or “Fractional vegetation cover.”
2) Line 164. Figure 1, left side. The text in the figure need be in English.
Comments on the Quality of English LanguageIt is recommended to check the text of the manuscript for minor inaccuracies.
Author Response
Response: Thank you very much for these comments and please find the detailed responses to your suggestions below.
- It is recommended to use only one of the FVC designations in the manuscript: “Fractional vegetation coverage” or “Fractional vegetation cover.”
Response: Thanks for your comments, we have standardized FVC designations as “Fractional vegetation coverage”。
Line101:In the evaluation of vegetation restoration, the fractional vegetation coverage (FVC) index of the inverse performance of the empirical model is often used for evaluation[9].
- Line 164. Figure 1, left side. The text in the figure need be in English.
Response: Thanks for your suggestions. We are sorry for this language mistake. we have changed the text in English of Figure 1.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
